1/72 Heller Dassault M.D. 450 "Ouragan"

by Rupesh Santoshi

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  India Republic Day 2005 

 

The Heller Ouragan (Hurricane) kit is the only one of this aircraft in 1/72 scale.  The kit has quite a bit of detail considering how old it is.  I built the model out-of-the-box with a few extra details in the wheel wells and some of my own decals.  I finished the plane in the markings of IC 568 from the No. 29 Scorpions squadron of the Indian Air Force.

In June 1953, India ordered 71 Ouragans (renamed Toofani, which is the Hindi translation of the French word) to bolster its nascent fleet of jets.  Subsequent orders took the total to 104 units.  Indian Air Force Ouragans were the standard production model, but powered by the slightly more powerful 5,180 lb.s.t. Nene 105A engine.  IAF Toofanis did not see air combat with Pakistan in either the 1965 or 1971 conflicts, and were phased out from 1966 onwards.

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The Heller kit fell together pretty easily.  There were no major issues other than making sure it wasn’t a tail-sitter. I cut the canopy to pose it open, but you can’t see the cockpit detail very well. Other than some seat belts, I did not add much to the cockpit.  The fuselage and wing fit was generally good and the usual dab of putty was needed to fill the seams. The landing gear was surprisingly more detailed than expected, but I decided to add some wiring and tubing to the sparse wheel wells.

The model was airbrushed a combination of panels in Testors aluminum non-buffing metalizer, stainless steel and magnesium metalizer. It was a bit of trial and error to mask and paint the red areas-I made many mistakes especially on the tail and wing tip-tanks.  I sealed the entire model with Future® to deaden the shine and prepare the surface for decals.  The eye-catching Scorpions insignia, aircraft number and “Keep Off” over-wing signage was home made on a color laser printer on Experts-Choice™ decal paper.  The rest of the decals were from spares and the kit.  The kit decals are pretty old so there was some yellowing (if you look closely you can see what I mean); so I used them sparingly. Finally, I sealed the entire model with Acrylic Flat Clear.

Rupesh

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Photos and text © by Rupesh Santoshi